When I was young we were minding a friend's cat from out of the area, so we
put him outside on a leash and collar under a small shrubby shade tree
while we sat nearby and played a board game. The cat climbed into the lower
branches, slipped, and started to hang. We rushed right over and supported
the cat's weight from below, but before we could get the collar off the
panicking cat put a front paw through the collar and snapped his own neck,
dying instantly.

I have always used a small *harness* (and not the figure eight kind, but
the two loops connected by a bar type for dogs under 10 lbs) that has both
a break-away clasp (not a buckle, though they still sell these horribly
enough), and that is loose enough that the cat would slide out of it like a
kid out of a sweater if tangled in something higher-up like a tree (this
happened on a log once...found an empty, intact harness dangling about 2
feet up...I wandered the woods with my cordless electric can opener until
cat heard his favorite sound and came running back to me.  Also, hook the
leash under thge belly, not at the back like most would have you do-- if
your cat is on a 100 foot lead and takes a running start at a bird or such
and hits the end of the rope, it's more desireable to have cat pulled
toward himself than bent backwards.

signed,
the owner of a cat in the woods who doesn't have the sense to stay away
from coyotes and great horned owls without my monitoring him.

--Patrice 85GL "VanaBlue"